


Degeneration

by fall_into_life



Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Gen, Multi, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-29
Updated: 2013-10-29
Packaged: 2017-12-30 20:00:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1022799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fall_into_life/pseuds/fall_into_life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a prompt on the naruto_meme livejournal:</p>
<p>"Ino loses her hair and good looks due to horrible burns, Chouji eats a diseased meal and wastes away to a shell of skin and bones, and without his comrades to keep him anchored, Shikamaru loses his sanity. Implied InoShikaChou threesome."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Degeneration

They don't leave the house much anymore.

When they first moved in, their parents threw a collective shit fit. Yoshino yelled until her voice broke, Chouza gave Chouji one of the most serious talks he'd ever managed, and Inoichi outright forbade it.

They did it anyway. Shikamaru mumbled something neither he nor his parents remember to this day and gathered his things, Chouji faced his father down for the first time either of them could remember, and Ino slipped out in the middle of the night.

It started out as an arrangement of convenience, but now it's all they have. Chouji needs constant monitoring by someone with medical training, Ino needs someone to need her, and Shikamaru needs people to remind him who he was, who he wants to be.

Their three separate bedrooms slowly merge into one. Ino gives up her room so they have a place to keep all Chouji's dialysis equipment, then Shikamaru ends up in their bed so much they eventually sell his. All too often, they wake up with one of them clinging to another (Ino sobbing into Shikamaru's arms, Shikamaru burying his head in Chouji's neck long enough that Chouji's scent drowns out his ghosts, Chouji weakly telling Ino something is wrong). Not often enough, they laugh and bicker and tease like back in their genin days.

It's not enough. Every day, Chouji gets a little weaker, Ino stares at her (horrible, ugly, scarred) reflection a little longer, and it takes Shikamaru a little longer to remember who he is.

In the end, Chouji outlives his teammates. He tells everyone who will listen, everyone from nurses to doctors to his few clanmates who still visit, about the girl with bright blue eyes and the boy who would take on the world for his beloved few, because someone needs to remember them when he's gone.


End file.
